Netanyahu tries to sabotage nuclear negotiations between Iran and the US but Trump assures they will continue

The President of the United States, Donald Trump, received Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the Oval Office this Wednesday. The seventh meeting between the two leaders since the Republican regained the White House coincided with the nuclear negotiations in Oman between the Iranians and the Americans, and with the beginning of the “second phase” of the peace agreement in Gaza, stalled due to Hamas’s refusal to hand over its weapons.

Netanyahu’s reception was less warm than usual. The Israeli prime minister did not enter through the main door of the White House, where journalists were waiting, but rather did so through a side door, like the Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado. Netanyahu also did not receive the traditional guard of honor. Trump chose this time to keep a low profile.

Before speaking with the American president, the Likud leader signed the document confirming Israel’s entry into the so-called Peace Board, the body that will oversee governance in Gaza. Trump was not present at the signing ceremony, but rather his Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, the administration’s go-to guy.

The day before, Netanyahu met in Washington with Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, and with the president’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, the tandem that directs Washington’s diplomacy in Ukraine and the Middle East. In fact, it was Witkoff and Kushner who staged the first contact between the White House and the Islamic Republic in Muscat.

This Wednesday, Netanyahu called on Trump to adopt a more uncompromising stance regarding the nuclear program and the ballistic missile program of Iran, his regional nemesis. “I will present to the president our views on the principles of the negotiations,” the Israeli prime minister had advanced through a video posted on social networks.

Vice President JD Vance clarified this Wednesday from Baku that the priority is to reach a negotiated solution, but did not rule out taking the military route. Meanwhile, Trump redoubled pressure on Iran. “Either we will reach an agreement or we will have to do something very hard, like the last time,” he threatened, in statements reported by the digital Axios. “We have an armada heading there and another may go too.”

The president mentioned the possibility of deploying a second aircraft carrier in the Middle East to keep the USS Abraham Lincoln company in case, as everything suggests, the negotiations do not come to a successful conclusion. Trump declared in Fox Business that seeks an agreement that leaves Iran “without nuclear weapons, without missiles.” The White House also intends to nip in the bud the political, economic and military support that Tehran provides to Hezbollah, Hamas and other related militias in the region.

Iran, however, does not contemplate discussing its missile program or its support for the so-called Axis of Resistance. The Islamic Republic only contemplates negotiating the evolution of its nuclear program, reducing the levels of uranium enrichment or its reserves. From the outset, the positions are irreconcilable, and Netanyahu wanted to deepen the gap.

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